A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility
is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned and usually deprived
of a range of personal freedoms.
Prisons are conventionally institutions, which form
part of the criminal
justice system of a country, such that imprisonment or
incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the
state for the commission
of a crime.

In popular parlance of many countries, the term
jail (gaol) is considered
synonymous with prison, although legally these are often distinct
institutions: typically jails are intended to hold persons awaiting
trials or serving sentences of less than one year, whereas prisons
host prisoners serving longer sentences.

A criminal suspect who has been charged
with or is likely to be charged with a criminal offense may
be held on
remand in prison if he or she is denied, refused or unable to
meet conditions of bail, or
is unable to post bail. This may also occur where the court
determines that the suspect is at risk of absconding before the
trial, or is otherwise a risk to society. A criminal defendant may also be held in
prison while awaiting trial or a
trial verdict. If found
guilty, a defendant will be convicted
and may receive a custodial sentence
requiring imprisonment.

History

For most of history, imprisoning has not been a
punishment in itself, but rather a way to lock up criminals until
corporal
or capital
punishment. There were prisons used for detention in Jerusalem in
Old
Testament times. Dungeons were used
to hold prisoners; those who were not killed or left to die there
often became galley
slaves or faced penal
transportations. In other cases debtors were often thrown into
debtor's
prisons, until they paid their jailers enough money in exchange
for a limited degree of freedom. Only in the 19th century did
prisons as we know them today become commonplace.

The first "modern" prisons of the early 19th
Century were sometimes known by the term "penitentiary" (a term
still used by some prisons in the USA today): as the name suggests,
the goal of these facilities was that of penance by the prisoners,
through a regimen of strict disciplines, silent reflections, and
maybe forced labor on treadwheels and the like.
This "Auburn
system" of prisoner management was often reinforced by
elaborate prison architectures, such as the separate
system and the panopticon. It was not until
the late 19th Century did rehabilitation through education and
skilled labor become the standard goal of prisons.

Design and facilities

Male and female prisoners are
typically kept in separate locations or separate prisons
altogether. Prison accommodation, especially modern prisons in the
developed
world, are often divided into wings. A building holding more
than one wing is known as a "hall".

Amongst the facilities that prisons may have are:

A main entrance, which may be known as the 'gatelodge' or
'sally port' (stemming from old castle nomenclature)

A segregation unit (also called a 'block' or 'isolation cell'),
used to separate unruly, dangerous, or vulnerable prisoners from
the general population, also sometimes used as punishment (see
solitary
confinement)

A section of vulnerable prisoners (VPs), or protective Custody
(PC) units, used to accommodate prisoners classified as vulnerable,
such as sex offenders, former police
officers, informants, and those that
have gotten into debt or trouble with other prisoners

Prisons are normally surrounded by fencing,
walls, earthworks, geographical features, or other barriers to
prevent escape. Multiple barriers, concertina
wire, electrified
fencing, secured and defensible main gates, armed guard towers,
lighting, motion sensors, dogs, and
roving patrols may all also be present depending on the level of
security. Remotely controlled doors, CCTV
monitoring, alarms, cages, restraints, nonlethal and lethal
weapons, riot-control gear and physical segregation of units and
prisoners may all also be present within a prison to monitor and
control the movement and activity of prisoners within the
facility.

Modern prison designs, particularly those of
high-security prisons, have sought to increasingly restrict and
control the movement of prisoners throughout the facility while
minimizing the corrections staffing needed to monitor and control
the population. As compared to the traditional
landing-cellblock-hall designs, many newer prisons are designed in
a decentralized "podular" layout with individual self-contained
housing units, known as "pods" or "modules", arranged around
centralized outdoor yards in a "campus". The pods contain tiers of
cells laid out in an open pattern arranged around a central control
station from which a single corrections officer can monitor all of
the cells and the entire pod. Control of cell doors, communications
and CCTV monitoring is conducted from the control station as well.
Movement out of the pod to the exercise yard or work assignments
can be restricted to individual pods at designated times, or else
prisoners may be kept almost always within their pod or even their
individual cells depending upon the level of security. Goods and
services, such as meals, laundry, commissary,
educational materials, religious services and medical care can
increasingly be brought to individual pods or cells as well.

Conversely, despite these design innovations,
overcrowding at many prisons, particularly in the U.S., has
resulted in a contrary trend, as many prisons are forced to house
large numbers of prisoners, often hundreds at a time, in gymnasiums
or other large buildings that have been converted into massive open
dormitories.

Lower-security prisons are often designed with
less restrictive features, confining prisoners at night in smaller
locked dormitories or even cottage or cabin-like housing while
permitting them freer movement around the grounds to work or
activities during the day.

See Panopticon for a
historical prison design that has influenced modern designs.

Types

Juvenile

Prisons for juveniles (people under 18) are known
as young offenders institutes and hold minors who have been
convicted, many countries have their own
age of criminal responsibility in which children are deemed
legally responsible for their actions for a crime. seealso Juvenile
delinquency

Military

Prisons form part of military systems, and are
used variously to house prisoners of war, unlawful
combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security
risk by military or civilian authorities, and members of the
military found guilty
of a serious crime.

Political

Certain countries maintain or have in the past
had a system of political prisons; arguably the gulags associated with Stalinism are
best known. The definition of what is and is not a political crime
and a political prison is, of course, highly controversial.

Psychiatric

Some psychiatric
facilities have characteristics of prisons, especially when
confining patients who have committed a crime and are considered
dangerous. In addition, many prisons have psychiatric units
dedicated to housing offenders diagnosed with a wide variety of
mental
disorders.

Rehabilitation

Meta-analysis of previous studies shows that
prison sentences do not reduce future offenses, when compared to
non-residential sanctions. This meta-analysis of one hundred
separate studies found that post-release offenses were around 7%
higher after imprisonment compared with non-residential sanctions,
at statistically significant levels. Another meta-analysis of 101
separate tests of the impact of prison on crime found a 3% increase
in offending after imprisonment. Longer periods of time in prison
make outcomes worse, not better; offending increases by around 3%
as prison sentences increase in length.

Effective rehabilitation programs reduce the
likelihood of re-offense and recidivism. Effective
programs are characterised by three things: first, they provide
more hours for people with known offense risk factors (the Risk
Principle); secondly, they address problems and needs that have a
proven causal link to offending (the Needs Principle); and thirdly,
they use cognitive-behavioural approaches (the Responsivity
Principle). Providing rehabilitation to people at lower risk of
reoffending results in a 3% reduction in reoffending, while
providing rehabilitation to people with a high risk of reoffending
is three times as effective, resulting in a 10% reduction in
subsequent offending. Risk factors for reoffending are: age at
first offense, number of prior offenses, level of family and
personal problems in childhood and other historical factors, along
with level of current needs related to offending. Those individuals
who had many personal and family problems in childhood
(particularly 19 or more), started offending before puberty, and
have committed multiple priors are more likely to reoffend in
future, according to longitudinal studies internationally.

In support of the Needs Principle: Programs that
specifically target criminogenic needs (causal needs and problems),
see a 19% reduction in reoffending.

In support of the Responsivity Principle: There
is a 23% reduction in reoffending after participating in programs
that use cognitive-behavioural methods to bring about changes in
behaviour, thinking, and relationships.

When all three of these principles are
effectively applied, the impact on offending is a 26-32% reduction.
This is in comparison to a 3-7% increase in offending that is found
with imprisonment.

Residential approaches—whether in
prison or some other live-in option—tend to be less
effective than non-residential approaches. These researchers found
that effective programs delivered in the community were followed by
a 35% reduction in reoffending, whereas effective programs
delivered in residential settings (such as prisons and halfway
houses) were followed by a 17% reduction in reoffending. One very
likely reason for this is that for teens and adults, mixing with
antisocial peers increases the risk of offending. In prison or
residences inmates spend a great deal of time with other people
immersed in criminal pursuits and beliefs, whereas in
community-based programs there is more opportunity to mix with
people involved in constructive, law-abiding activities. Antisocial
peers in prisons and residences can form a very powerful pressure
group, subtly and not so subtly influencing the behavior of other
inmates.

Population statistics

As of 2006, it is estimated that at least 9.25
million people are currently imprisoned worldwide. It is believed
that this number is likely to be much higher, in view of general
under-reporting and a lack of data from various countries,
especially authoritarian
regimes.

In absolute terms, the United
States currently has the largest inmate population in the
world, with more than 2½ million or more than one in a hundred
adults in prison and jails. Although the United States represents
less than 5% of the world's population, over 25% of the people
incarcerated around the world are housed in the American prison
system. Pulitzer Prize winning author Joseph T. Hallinan wrote in
his book Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation, "so common
is the prison experience that the federal government predicts one
in eleven men will be incarcerated in his lifetime, one in four if
he is black." In 2002, both Russia and
China also had prison populations in excess of 1 million. By
October 2006, the Russian prison population declined to 869,814
which translated into 611 prisoners per 100,000 population.

As a percentage of total population, the United
States also has the largest imprisoned population, with 739 people
per 100,000 serving time, awaiting trial or otherwise
detained.

In March 2007, the United
Kingdom had 80,000 inmates (up from 73,000 in 2003 and 44,000
in 1985) in its facilities, one of the highest rates among the
western members of the European Union
(EU) (a record formerly held by Portugal). The
highest imprisonment rates among the larger EU members include that
of Poland,
which in August 2007 had about 90,000 inmates, i.e. 234 prisoners
per 100,000 inhabitants, || 611 || 186 || 126 || 148 || 91 || 107
|| 95 ||22|| 104 || 85 || 105 || 82 || 77 || 62 || 40 |}

Prisons by country

Australia

Many prisons in Australia were
built by convict labour
in the 1800s. During the 1990s, various state governments in
Australia engaged private sector correctional corporations to build
and operate prisons whilst several older government run
institutions were decommissioned. Operation of Federal detention
centres was also privatised at a time when a large influx of
illegal immigrants began to arrive in Australia.

Germany

Germany has 194
prisons (of which 19 are open institutions). Official statistics
showed 80,214 places on March 312007. On the
same day, there were 75,719 prisoners (of which 13,168 pre-trial;
60,619 serving sentences; 1,932 others, i.e. mainly civil
prisoners; 4,068 were female). This is less than the highest value
of 81,176 prisoners on March 312003.

India

There are 1305 prisons in India (Central Jail 93.
District Jail-257. Sub-Jail 850, Open Jail-2. Special jail 28.
Women jail I?.Borstal Institution-13 and Juvenile and Lunatics
Camps-13) having the authorized capacity of 214241. Against this
authorized accommodation the actual prison population is 257235
which is dominated by the large chunk of under trial prisoners 1
e.. 73% This proportion of under trial prisoners is rapidly is on
increase leading to overcrowding in Jail 20% in 1998 against 9.33%
in 1996. The percentage of women prisoners in total prison
population Is increasing on rapid pace especially in Bihar. Madhya
Pradesh. Gujrat. Orissa, Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra and Mizoram,
while in Delhi and Haryana it is slightly declining or static in
comparison to the year 1996. The problem of overcrowding in jail Is
not uniformly prevailing In all States IUTs. However is 3.18%. We
have the sanctioned Strength of 49030 of prison staff at various
rank's out of which the present staff strength is ?round 40000. The
ratio between the prison staff and the prison population is
approximately 1:7. It means only one prison officer is available
for 7 prisoners. while in UK 2 prison officers are available only
for 3 prisoners. (Statistical profile of Prisons in India prepared
by Bureau of Police Research and Development. Ministry of Home
Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi as on 31.12.1998)

Jamaica

Japan

New Zealand

New Zealand currently maintains 19 prisons
around the country. The Department of Corrections has an annual
budget of NZD$748 million and
assets worth over NZD$1.7 billion.
Official statistics show (as of June 302007) that there are
currently 7,605 prisoners within the New Zealand
correctional system. (5,490 Sentenced Prisoners and 1,552 Remanded
Prisoners) + 5,795 staff. Breakouts are only at 0.15 per 100
prisoners and there is a rate of only 15% positive drug results
during random drug testing in NZ prisons.

Poland

As of the end of August 2007, Poland officially
declared 90,199 prisoners (13,374 pre-trial; 76,434 serving
sentences; 391 others; 2,743 prisoners were female), giving an
imprisonment rate per 100,000 inhabitants of about 234. The
overpopulation rate (number of prisoners held compared to number of
places for prisoners) was estimated by the official prison service
as 119%.

The growth rate of imprisonment in Poland during
2006-2007 was approximately 4% annually, based on the August 2007
estimate of 90,199 prisoners and the June 2005 estimate of 82,572
prisoners.

Turkey

Prisons in Turkey are
classified as closed, semi-open and open prisons. Closed prisons
are separated into different kinds according to its structure and
the number of the prisoners held. Examples are A type, B type, E
type and F type. F types are the ones in which high penalty
prisoners are held. Most which are being built today are L types
that are for low penalty prisoners.

United Kingdom

United States

Correspondence

Research indicates that inmates who maintain
contact with family and friends in the outside world are less
likely to offend and usually have an easier reintegration period
back into society. Many institutions encourage friends and families
to send letters, especially when they are unable to visit
regularly. However, guidelines exist as to what constitutes
acceptable mail, and these policies are strictly enforced.

Mail sent to inmates in violation of prison
policies can cost inmates "gain time" and even lead to punishment.
Most Department
of Corrections websites provide detailed information regarding
mail policies. These rules can even vary within a single prison
depending on which part of the prison an inmate is housed. For
example, death row and
maximum
security inmates are usually under stricter mail guidelines for
security reasons.

There have been several notable challenges to
prison corresponding services. The Missouri Department of
Corrections (DOC) stated that effective June 1, 2007, inmates would be
prohibited from using pen pal websites
citing concerns of fraud. Service providers such as WriteAPrisoner.com,
together with the ACLU, plan to
challenge the ban in Federal Court. Similar bans on an inmate's
rights or a website's right to post such information has been ruled
unconstitutional in other courts, citing First Amendment freedoms.
Since most DOCs already post inmate information on their websites,
critics claim this is a moot point. Inmates' ability to mail
letters to other inmates has been limited by the courts. Inmate
correspondence with members of society is typically encouraged
because of the positive impact it can have on inmates, albeit under
the guidelines of each institution and availability of letter
writers.